About this Author

College chemistry, 1983

The 2002 Model

After 10 years of blogging. . .

Derek Lowe, an Arkansan by birth, got his BA from Hendrix College and his PhD in organic chemistry from Duke before spending time in Germany on a Humboldt Fellowship on his post-doc. He's worked for several major pharmaceutical companies since 1989 on drug discovery projects against schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, diabetes, osteoporosis and other diseases.
To contact Derek email him directly: derekb.lowe@gmail.com
Twitter: Dereklowe

May 20, 2014

Xenon's Use as a Sports Drug Is Banned

Posted by Derek

Just a couple of months ago, I wrote about how xenon has been used as a performance-enhancing drug. Well, now it's banned. But I'd guess that they're going to have to look for its downstream effects, because detecting xenon itself, particularly a good while after exposure, is going to be a tall order. . .

Assuming the beneficial effects of Xe/Ar come from inducing mild hypoxia, the results can probably be obtained by living/training at high altitudes or sleeping in a simulated altitude tent (which dilutes the air slightly with N2).

Derek, if you are ever short of topics to blog about, a med chemists perspective of the science behind sports doping would be very interesting to read.

Assuming the beneficial effects of Xe/Ar come from inducing mild hypoxia, the results can probably be obtained by living/training at high altitudes or sleeping in a simulated altitude tent (which dilutes the air slightly with N2).

Derek, if you are ever short of topics to blog about, a med chemists perspective of the science behind sports doping would be very interesting to read.

With the implementation of the Biological Passport, the anti-doping authorities no longer have to detect an illegal substance, only the downstream effects, e.g. size distribution of reticulocytes. Before the Biological Passport, detecting things like hGH and EPO were ostensibly an IQ test, with a detection window of just a couple of days.

We'll never have clean sport, but the biological passport mitigates the extent to which athletes can cheat greatly.

Wasn't there some famous athlete with an abnormally high testosterone level and they banned him for doping? He was able to prove with medical records that his testosterone had been high his entire adult life and got the ban lifted? Or maybe he had to agree to a monitored stay in a clinic or hospital to prove he wasn't doping to get those high levels?